For me, painting is an active meditation —- be it exuberant expression or ethereal imagery —-my inner vision and imagination inform my work. As I focus on the music, sounds, colors, words, and patterns that invigorate my paintings, a spaciousness arises within me. Time evaporates, and I am centered and joy-filled.

Indoors, music sets the tone for the senses I want to explore. I most often listen to Latino music—-it floods my imagination with dancers, roosters, fireworks, laughter and passionate lovers, and takes me back to memories of my explorations and experience of living in Mexico.

For the more surreal paintings, ethereal music sets the stage. A stream of colors from my inner space floods my senses as they pulse and shift, taking me into moments of intense focus.

Outdoors, it is the white noise of silence and incessant movement that influences my work. A rushing river, thunder, a squirrel’s chatter (once sitting between my feet), rustling leaves —- these combined with shifts in light, temperature and air create a subtle orchestra to which I respond.

I am fascinated with the expression that rises out of the emptiness —- the space between the words, sounds, notes, or strokes of the paintbrush. I believe that what is real and true exists within that empty space —- and therefore must also be elusive. Painting, poetry, my energy work and dance all help me touch that place, if only for fleeting moments. I strive to access this source of life force.